


Ulthos

by onceuponanobsessedfan



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Song of Ice and Fire Fusion, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Game of Thrones Fusion, Arranged Marriage, Betrayal, Essos, F/F, F/M, Game of Thrones References, Gay Character, Inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, Inspired by Game of Thrones, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Female Character, Legends, Lesbian Character, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Same-Sex Marriage, Westeros, Yi Ti, ulthos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 10:00:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponanobsessedfan/pseuds/onceuponanobsessedfan
Summary: The land of Ulthos lies in the eastern most region of the known world, a largely mysterious continent that the scholars of Essos and Westeros have struggled to study. Four noble families inhabit the north: Kin Gilead - ruled by “The Golden King,” who keeps his only daughter under a mask so no man will wed her. Kin Eusepa - a tyrannical house with a sickly boy prince who fancies himself a god. Kin Ophira - a proud and loyal mountain family. Kin Sisera - the oldest noble family who live in the forest, largely considered “uncivilized” compared to the rest of the houses.Each house is struggling to continue its legacy, and with one house facing near extinction due to betrayal, rumors of war plague the land.





	Ulthos

**Author's Note:**

> I've been fascinated with Ulthos since I read about it in "The Lands of Ice and Fire." There's very little information about the land and how big it actually is. While the place itself canonically belongs to the "Game of Thrones" universe, the people, places, and legends are entirely mine. I'm not trying to write like Martin, I just wanted to create a fun, epic fic of my own. I hope you grow to like and hate my characters. I'll provide picture references as often as I can. Thank you for reading!

 

**Enora**

The sun was setting over Ulthos, casting a golden hue over Kin Ophira’s homestead. The Arm of God, a mile or so east, shone like a fiery arrowhead on the horizon. Enora stared at the imposing mountain, lost in thought as her twin sisters bounced around the room. Dessa and Vera, all but twelve, were playing dancing maidens, lifting their skirts and curtseying and kicking their feet. Enora went back to her cross stitch. The robin in her hoop was finally taking shape.

“Will you play somewhere else, please?” Enora implored.

“I hear Sisera women don’t wear corsets,” Dessa said, twirling Vera.

Enora’s needle punctured the thin fabric and bit her finger. She winced, drawing her hand from under her hoop, and saw a bead of red on the tip of her index. Enora put her finger to her mouth and asked, “Where did you hear that?” She sucked the blood away.

 Dessa came bouncing before her, black hair tangled along her shoulders. “Kently told me,” she replied. “He said Sisera men eat human flesh.”

A smile tugged Enora’s lips. “Our cousin likes to spin tales. Don’t believe everything he tells you.”

“He was right about _you_ ,” Vera challenged. She sat next to Enora on the cushioned bench. She was more affectionate than her twin, always crawling into Enora’s bed at night during storms, always offering kisses to every animal she came into contact with. “Kently said you’d marry a Sisera man,” Vera continued. “He said Father—”

“I’m _aware._ ” Enora grumbled, “Kent is a bloody prophet.”

The twins gasped. “Don’t swear!” they cried.

“Stop pestering me, both of you!” Enora stood and threw her cross stitch on the bench. She picked up her heavy skirts and stomped out of the room.

The twins were not ones to mince words. They had a preternatural ability to pinpoint a person’s fears and make them dwell on it. In this instance, Enora feared the Sisera man she was betrothed to—a match that had only been made three moons ago when Enora turned nineteen. She had long since become a woman, and with no prospects from the other three noble houses, her father acquiesced to a marriage of relative convenience. Kin Sisera would still offer them wood from their forests, and Enora’s house would keep the trail along the Arm of God for their traders. It was a match long overdue.

Enora entered her bedchambers. She asked her handmaiden for privacy, and when she was alone, she lay on her bed and jerked her feet nervously in thought.

 _Always a worrier_ , her father would say. Enora couldn’t help it. Her mind unraveled like twine when faced with a difficult position, her body twitching and seizing as dozens of scenarios crept up on her. What if her husband was cruel? What if the twins were right and Kin Sisera were nothing but cannibals and savages? She had never met a citizen of the kin—only watched their tradesmen lumber through the trails of the Arm of God when she was a child. They were strong, hard-faced men. They spoke little and wore simple clothing. Kently was enamored with Sisera’s finely-carved hilts of rich wood and jagged steel. Enora was terrified of their hard gray eyes and burly chests.

The men of her kin were different. They were lean and graceful and always with courtesy. Even the builders and farmers tipped their hats to women and wore shirts unmarred by rips or waste. They were civilized and said civil things and danced to sweet, civil music. Besides her family, Enora would miss the music most of all.

A knock at the chamber door interrupted Enora’s thoughts. She sat up in bed as her mother entered the room. Lady Calla was dressed in her eveningwear, a rich green dress with wide hips and a black lace bodice. The twins bore a striking resemblance to her—thick black hair, blue eyes, and tiny, graceful feet. Enora took after her father, who had a cleft chin, chestnut hair, and two left feet in the ballroom.

“Darling?” Calla asked. “Are you not dining?”

Enora sat on the edge of her bed and laid her arms on her lap. “I’m too anxious to eat. The twins are poisoning me with worry.”

“Why?” Calla sat next to her daughter on the bed. “Is it the marriage?”

Enora nodded. She chewed her bottom lip, tearing off a bit of skin, and finally looked up at her mother. “I know I must honor the commitment I’ve made,” she whispered, “but I’m frightened.”

“Is it the consummation?”

“Yes. And his temperament. What kind of man is he?”

Calla smiled and stroked her daughter’s cheek. “My love, we wouldn’t make you a match unless we knew your husband would be a man of honor and kindness.”

“But what if he isn’t? Men’s hearts change as easily as the wind.”

“You’re spending too much time with Kently,” Calla teased. “That boy is as fickle as—”

“ _Mother_ ,” Enora wailed. The bundle of nerves in her heart overflowed from her eyes. Tears fell down her pale face like twin waterfalls. She was helpless to rein them in unless she had reassurance, even in the form of a lie.

Calla wrapped her arms around her daughter. She held Enora close to her chest like when she was a baby and stroked her hair. “This is not an end,” Lady Calla whispered. “This is just the beginning of your life. You are strong and powerful.” She let go of her daughter and tucked her thumb beneath Enora’s chin so the child would look at her. “Our kin does not cower.”

Enora nodded as the last of her tears fell. “Our kin does not cower,” she whispered back.

Lady Calla helped Enora get dressed for dinner. The handmaiden tried to persuade her otherwise, but Enora was thankful for her mother’s persistence. They gossiped and giggled like children as Calla laced up her daughter’s corset. Enora wore a silk lilac dress and gold bracelets from Kin Gilead. When her hair was finally set—a braid crown, as per their house custom—they joined the rest of the family in the dining hall.

Lady Calla and her husband, Lord Herrick, sat at the head table. The twins were seated together at a separate table and Enora dined alone by the fire. In the middle of the room, a duck with elderberry glaze was roasting over a spit. Servants fluttered in an out of the room, carrying trays of bread and cheeses and sugared fruit.

Halfway through the meal, Lord Herrick stood with his wine goblet in hand. The rest of his family stood out of respect. He paused before speaking, looking over his family with a smile and a proud glint in his eye. He was shorter than most men of their kin, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in a deep, bellowing voice that commanded respect. Even the twins were silent and still at their father’s words.

“My loves,” he finally announced. “Before our meal ends, I want to give thanks to our goddess Gaelach for this wonderful evening.”

The girls touched their foreheads and raised their hand to the ceiling in reverence.

“Gaelach did not bless me with a son, but he gave me the most beautiful daughters in Ulthos.”

Enora looked at the floor, hands trembling as that ball of twine which had been rebound with Calla’s help was now coming loose once more.

“I know my Enora will make us proud on her wedding day.”

The twins smiled at their sister. Enora touched her queasy stomach. Before Lord Herrick could go on, and before Enora gave in to nervous tremors, the door to the dining hall opened and a voice bellowed, “Uncle, I am appalled!”

All heads turned to the voice. Enora’s anxiety vanished and she smiled as her cousin Kently swaggered into the room, boisterous and laughing and clapping his hands. The twins rushed to him and nearly knocked him over with a hug. He lifted them both up and squeezed their thin bodies tightly until they squealed.

“You sup without me?” Kently said, setting his cousins on their feet.

Enora looked at her father, whose mouth was set in a hard line as he glared at his nephew. Then, as quickly as Kently had arrived, Lord Herrick smiled and laughed. He set his wine on the table and met the boy by the spit with open arms.

“You little cur.” Herrick hugged his nephew tightly and slapped his back. “Wynn sent word that you were travelling back home.”

“My father has many ambitions for me. One of them is consistency. I continue to disappoint.”

Lord Herrick motioned for a servant and said, “Come sit and eat. We were just toasting Enora’s upcoming wedding.”

“Marriage!” Kently hollered dramatically. “I hear that’s punishment for stealing in Essos.” He threw Enora a wink as he sat next to her at her table.

Enora’s cheeks hurt from grinning. She loved her cousin most out of everyone in the world. They were best friends growing up, chasing each other through the gardens, hiking up the Arm of God, stealing sweets from the kitchen. He was the most handsome man of their kin, with golden hair, piercing blue eyes, and a smile that made women’s knees weak.

Alas, it was not women he was after.

“Doesn’t Einan miss you terribly?” Enora asked.

Kent smiled at her as a servant placed a dish of food before him. “Einan was without me the first sixteen years of his life. He can suffer another day.” Kently nodded to his uncle and said, “My apologies, Lord Herrick. I’ve interrupted your beautiful evening.”

Herrick offered the boy a faux grimace. “Just say your blessing to Gaelach and we’ll finish our meal.”

Kently pressed his fingers to his forehead and raised them quickly to the sky. He was wearing a lemon yellow tunic and red boots, easily the most colorful thing in the room. While their goddess favored modesty, Kently lived to be seen by everyone.

The meal continued, separate conversations filling the air, and Enora whispered to her cousin, “Will you be at the wedding?”

Kently shoveled a helping of duck into his mouth, his eyes turning downwards. When he finally swallowed, he said, “Father wants me to stay at the castle. He doesn’t want to leave it unguarded.”

Enora furrowed her brows. The thought of Kently guarding anything other than a pair of silk trousers was laughable. He was not a fighter, nor was he interested in politics. A castle to him was nothing more than stone and mortar. Then Enora frowned when she realized.

“You want to stay behind with Einan.”

Kent sipped his horn of wine silently.

“Kently you _promised_!”

“That was before I met Einan,” Kently explained. “Father isn’t keen on our affair, and with him gone—”

“What do you hope to gain from this, Kently?” Enora asked. “Lord Wynn will never let you marry him.”

Men or women who preferred their own sex was not uncommon or even taboo in their kin. Enora had once been to a wedding between two women in Valortown, a settlement a few miles south of their castle. Outsiders were angry and disgusted, but when Enora saw the two women together—a ruddy-faced blonde and a petit brunette—she couldn’t understand why anyone would deny them their happiness. Still, the law dictated that such a union could only be permitted if a legitimate heir could carry on the house name.

“You’re the only one who can continue the bloodline,” Enora continued. “I wish it were different, but—”

“You don’t think I already know what my future holds?” Kently snapped. “Father will thrust whatever Gileadean maid he can throw at me, I’ll be forced to impregnate her like she’s some brood mare, and Einan will be left in the shadows as a bloody concubine.” He paused, catching his breath. Kently rarely got angry, but when he did, the force of a demon was behind his eyes. “So yes, I will be staying behind,” he continued in a lower tone. “Because I want to enjoy what little time I have left with the man I love.”

Enora stared at her cousin as he turned away and ate his duck. She closed her gaping mouth, cheeks burning with shame. After a few moments of silence between them, Enora placed her hand on Kently’s and said, “I’m sorry. I wish I could change the law.”

Kently sighed through his nose. He took a long swig of wine and muttered, “So do I.”


End file.
